The number of people working in Massachusetts’ renowned biotech sector fell last year, the first time that’s happened since at least 2002, according to a new report.
The state’s biopharma workforce shrank by about 3,600 employees in 2025, to a total of 113,503, as industry headwinds and uncertainty about federal funding for scientific research battered the sector, according to the annual “industry snapshot” by the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council trade group. Compared to 2024, the workforce declined by 3.1 percent.
Many of the lab buildings in Greater Boston that everyone thought would be filled with scientists when venture capital flowed freely early in the pandemic now stand empty, a symbol of what former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan once dubbed irrational exuberance.
But before you bet against landing a biotech job in Massachusetts, take note: the 2025 employment total is almost certainly already out of date, said Ben Bradford, head of external affairs for MassBio. That’s good news for Massachusetts, where biotech pumped roughly $42 billion into the state’s economy in 2024, according to the group’s most recent available estimate.
Workforce numbers typically lag behind a recovery, said Bradford and industry experts. And after a years-long slump, biopharma has come roaring back in 2026, as much of the more recent data in the report illustrates.
“Biotech is back and in a strong up cycle,” said Alexis Borisy, cofounder and chairman of the venture firm Curie.Bio and a serial entrepreneur. “We went through a big downturn from ‘21 and ‘22, and the boom that had led up to that is what I called the seventh cycle of biotech since biotech began in the 1970s. It’s now clear we are in the eighth up cycle.”
The MassBio report contains plenty of evidence suggesting Borisy is right.
Venture funding for biotech startups surged to $3.45 billion in the first half of 2026, up 25 percent over the same period last year and the strongest opening half since 2023. Eight Massachusetts companies went public in the first half of this year, matching the combined total of 2024 and 2025.
Eleven Massachusetts biotechs were acquired for a reported $18 billion in the first half of this year, well above the $7.6 billion reported at the same point last year for mergers and acquisitions.
At least eight Massachusetts biotechs made their own acquisitions in the first half of this year, including Biogen’s purchase of Waltham-based immunology company Apellis Pharmaceuticals for about $5.6 billion. The deal was among the largest under Biogen chief executive Chris Viehbacher.
“I love seeing the M&As, the IPOs, and the venture capital flowing,” said Bradford. “The hope is that we’re on the upswing again.”
Even one of the companies that shed the most employees in Massachusetts last year has had good news recently.
Moderna, which helped develop one of the two messenger RNA vaccines that tamed the pandemic, shrank from 4,434 employees in 2024 to 3,042 in 2025, a decline of nearly a third, according to the MassBio report. (In fact, the plunge has been even steeper: Moderna spokesperson Christopher Ridley said last week that the company now has a Massachusetts workforce of about 2,600.)
But last Wednesday, Moderna’s stock almost tripled after the biotech reported the first successful results of a personalized mRNA vaccine in a late-stage trial to treat melanoma, which experts said could foreshadow its use against other cancers. Ridley said that the company is “constantly rebuilding” but he had no specifics to share on whether Moderna will start hiring again.
The recovery is hardly limited to Massachusetts. The XBI, biotech’s most-watched stock index, is up more than 34 percent for the year. At $164, the index is approaching its peak of $175 set in February 2021 during the pandemic-era growth bubble.
Among the industry veterans hoping that the recovery continues is Joe Newman, 60, a microbiologist who was laid off twice last year from jobs leading drug development teams at two companies.
The first time was in February, when he lost his job at Omega Therapeutics, which filed for bankruptcy. After several weeks, he landed a position at Generation Bio but was laid off in October when that struggling company shed 90 percent of its staff.
“It’s hard” getting laid off twice in eight months, said Newman. He has worked as a consultant from his Sudbury house since he became unemployed, but, he said, “I still have the energy to lead a team or build a team.”
Fortunately, he said, the job market appears to be improving. He’s had eight job interviews this year, including six in the second quarter.
“I think Boston [biotech] will come back. There are too many good universities and scientists for it not to,” said Newman, who completed two postdoctoral fellowships at MIT and Tufts University’s school of medicine.
Rahul Dhanda, chief executive of a 4-year-old Boston startup, Syntis Bio, said he’s optimistic that the state’s biotech hub is rebounding. The small company is developing medicines to treat obesity and has about 20 employees, more than twice as many as it had a year ago.
“I’m very upbeat about the sector,” he said. “Between IPOs, the rising XBI, and massive M&A activity, the indicators are all very positive.”
The state’s biotech hub is resilient, Bradford, of MassBio, said, but it needs to be nurtured with funding from public and private sources.
Fortunately, he said, Governor Maura Healey and the Legislature in late 2024 earmarked $1 billion over 10 years for the life sciences industry, reauthorizing an initiative begun by Governor Deval Patrick and continued by Governor Charlie Baker.
“It took 40 years to build this industry,” Bradford said, “but just because it’s here, doesn’t mean it’s always going to be here if we don’t support it.”
Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jonathan.saltzman@globe.com.